Customer Reviews

Verilux Rise & Shine Natural Alarm Clock Deluxe Bedside Lamp, Ivory

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I recently bought the Verilux Rise & Shine lamp because it is already so dark up here in Seattle (I just moved from SF this summer) that the sun is a good hour away from rising when I wake up to go to work. The idea behind the lamp (with a full-spectrum bulb that imitates light from the sun) is that it turns on gradually over an extended period of time, helping you wake up.

I've been so groggy over the past three weeks that I was willing to cough up $150 for a lamp & alarm clock. This product is a GREAT idea, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

* The lamp itself stopped working after one day. Probably needs a new, $10 bulb.

* The alarm lets you choose whether you want sound, light or both to wake you up. I thought this product would be fantastic if the light started to turn on gradually about 15 minutes before the radio turned on. It doesn't work that way. The radio turns on the same time the light turns on, and this problem is exacerbated by the next complaint.

* There are only four volume settings for the radio. The lowest setting is perfectly clear and louder than I need to wake up. Of course, since the product is supposed to gradually increase the volume of sound, it ramps all the way up to the loudest setting. To add insult to injury, you can't turn down the volume when it's in the alarm cycle.

* The light itself turns on rather abruptly. Mind you, I only got to experience this on one morning before the bulb or lamp was broken, but the light went from zero to about 20% in a fraction of a second, which is more than enough to wake me up.

* The radio has unbelievably horrible reception. The local NPR station, KUOW, comes in crystal-clear on my stereo and cheap shower radio. No matter how long I spent tuning the lamp radio, I got a lot of static. No matter where in the apartment I put the lamp, I got a substantial amount of static.

* The radio tuner is contextless. That is, the dial has no numbers whatsoever, so you can't tell whether you're in the 101s or the 92s. Finding your favorite channel takes about 10 minutes of listening to every channel that sort of sounds like what you're looking for.

* I like the soothing sounds, and I can imagine it would help me get back to sleep on those occasions when I wake up in the middle of the night. I found the "extra" sounds a bit distracting, though. For example, the "surf" sound includes whale calls, while the "forest" sound--rhythmic insect chirping--has an an owl cooing in your year.

After reading the reviews here for the Verilux natural alarm clock lamp, I decided I would order one and try it for myself.

I had some reservations due to some negative reviews here BUT there were also several positive reviews and I really wanted the product to work, as I thought it was a cool concept.

So I ordered a Verilux lamp of my own to try and it arrived yesterday.

The lamp worked okay right out of the box BUT it seemed to be quite dim and nothing at all like a roomful of sunshine as advertised.

Also, the dimmer switch on the lamp did not work. The switch worked for on & off (push in) but did not work when turned left or right to dim or brightwn the lamp.

Also, the lamp hummed softly but noticable once thee bub was turned on. Especially in a quiet room at night, this is very noticable.

last night, I set the lamp alarm clock for 2 different sounds for sleep (30 minutes) and wake up (60 minutes). The lamp did dim its light but in rather noticable jerks, and shut off at the right time. The light and sound did start at the correct time in the morning. But the lamp seemed very dim.

Today I tried a few things with this Verilux lamp and discovered that the problem of the dim light and hum was due to the verilux light bulb not being installed correctly. Mine just needed to be turned in a little tighter and then the lamp got very bright! AND the hum stopped when I turned on this lamp using the push in switch on the lamp. So the fault was my own for not screwing in the bulb correctly.

The radio is quite mediocre, in both AM and FM reception. In fact, so poor that I do not use it. I have a Bose clock radio/CD Player in the same room and have that set to come on in sync with the Verilux lamp.

The sounds all worked and there are 2 I rather like, harbor (gulls), and Birds. BUT all the sounds share one very annoying thing.. the rhythmic type sounds in the background such as waves crashing onshore, rainfall, forest sounds are good BUT each choice also features one annoying sound that seems to be featured and played louder and it repeats over & over, such as a hooting owl, or loud chimes, the same sound every few seconds. The sounds are like an endless loop that is way too short in length, so repeats itself much too soon, resulting in annoyance & tedium rather than enjoyment.

So all you folks who mentioned in your reviews that your lamp seemed way too dim and/or made a humming noise, please try re-installing your verilux light bulb, making sure it is screwed in tight enough, and see if that doesn't solve the problems.

My manual showed a lightbulb with 2 pins that neeed to be turned 1/8 turn BUT the light bulb that came with my lamp had no pins and just screwed in like any other light bulb does. As soon as I tightened the bulb a bit more in its socket, the lamp got way brighter, the dimmer switch worked as it should, and the humming stopped.

I found this lamp easy & intuitive to use and it does what is advertised. I do think, though, that it is overpriced for what it does AND the sounds really need to be reworked. And it could use a better AM/FM radio.

Gail

I bought this lamp to help me with waking up in the winter mornings and to help combat my tendency to go into hibernation mode as we head into Fall. Living in Seattle the sun rises late and sets early with 16 hours of darkness at the Solstice. Then add grey skies and rain. I have noticed that I get very very tired and want to eat everything in sight starting around October. I hoped this lamp, by faking me out with an artifical, dawn would mitigate than tendency...and it has.

I chose this lamp over the others listed because I read the reviews that said those lamps seemed cheaply made for the price, and weren't all that bright. This lamp is bright enough. It fills up my room with light. The color spectrum seems like daylight when it is at full. And the lamp seems well made.

The lamp it self is larger than it looks from the picture online. It stands about 18" tall and comes with a nice lampshade. The bulb is also included, as well as a plug in speaker that you can put under your pillow, so you are less likely disturb any other occupants of your bed with the noise from the radio or nature sounds.

The backlight LCD display is a bit bright for me. It does have a dimmer switch and you can change the color of the display to almost any color, or there is a setting that will let it cycle through the spectrum. The radio works well enough and the sound quality is pretty good. There are a number of nature sounds that sound pretty good. Standard stuff. It is kind of cool to listen to the sounds through your pillow with the included pillow speaker. Really.

Here are my two biggest complaints about this lamp. One: It allows you to wake up with a combination of light and sound (or you can pick one or the other). The light starts from dim and goes to bright, but the sound comes on a whatever level you happen to set it at. I wanted it to slowly get louder as the light gets louder. What's the point of the light gently waking you up if the sound does it right away. I just wake up to the light and use my old clock radio in tandem, which does start softly and get louder.

Two: The dimmer on the light buzzes for the first two or three minutes you have it on. Then it quiets down and continues to get brighter silently. It's not super loud, but loud enough to wake you up if you are a light sleeper (which I am). My heavy sleeping bedmate doesn't move a bit.

So in conclusion this lamp has done its job in alleviating some of my hibernation tendencies. I find it easier to get up, if not any happier to go to work. My bedmate says she notices a positive difference too.

It is expensive. I was lucky and I had a gift certificate, otherwise I might have bought the less expensive brand. However, I am glad I purchased it now, and now knowing how it operates I would be willing to spend the money again if this one broke for some reason.

For the price I paid for this lamp, I expected better design, engineering and workmanship.

The basic features of the lamp mostly work well enough. The lamp is much nicer at waking me up than a regular alarm clock; I set it to start ramping up the birdsong sound and the brightness 60 minutes before my wakeup time, and that is flawless.

Some problems:

1. The alarm and light inexplicably shut themselves off automatically 30 minutes after the alarm time, and it doesn't seem that there's any option to keep them going. I'm a very heavy chronically sleep-deprived sleeper, so I am in fact still asleep when it shuts off. I usually wake up half an hour after it's shut off.

2. The lamp is built to much tighter tolerances than the replacement bulbs. I've had this lamp for less than a year now, and with two bulb replacements so far, one of the three bulbs I've had to deal with was built in such a way that I could barely get it to install in the lamp.

3. The bulbs themselves are badly built. Their contacts in the bottoms are blobs of solder. I just replaced a bulb whose filament was perfectly fine, but whose contact at the bottom just fell off the casing.

Overall, this lamp leaves me looking for something better.

6 months out of the year, I have a horrible time waking up in the morning because it's DARK. The Rise & Shine has been a godsend.

I start waking up gently and gradually. I use the bird sounds or the harbor sound (seagulls) to wake up. It is so natural, and I am ready to get up at 6:00 a.m. rather than being jarred awake and feeling depressed and wanting to stay asleep.

The full-spectrum light is beautiful! It's like real daylight.

I have not had any of the problems some of the other reviewers have reported. Everything works correctly, although I did have to spend some time reading the instructions at first to figure out how to do everything.

In the evening, I use the "forest" sounds to go to sleep, or sometimes the radio. It works like a charm. The radio tuning dial does indeed have numbers on it -- you just have to LOOK. I have had no trouble with reception. It's not some Bose stereo or anything, but the sound quality is good enough.

The Amazon price is a lot lower than suggested retail, and I feel it was well worth the investment to be able to wake up in the morning and actually feel like getting up, rather than feeling depressed and groggy.

In addition to this product, I bought an Apollo Go-Lite P2, which I use for light therapy in the morning for 15-20 minutes. The combination of these 2 products has pretty much cured my SADD! I can actually function during the dark months now!

After reading a couple of negative reviews, I was hesitant to purchase this lamp/alarm clock. The positive reviews and the absolute need to find a method to get passed the SAD I am experiencing this winter convinced me to give it a try. I do not regret that decision at all.

I carefully read the well written and easy to follow instructions and had my lamp/alarm clock set up in no time. Waking up with this thing is a wonderful experience. You feel refreshed and ready to go!!! (I also recommend keeping a fresh bottle of water next to your bed and take just a few sips upon waking. Finish the bottle as you get dressed in the morning. Re-hydrating after sleep assists in getting the blood flowing well and gives you energy.)

What may be just as good as the LIGHT feature is the SOUND feature. The lamp gives you several natural sound options that can be used for waking up and going to sleep. Even better - you can have different sounds for waking and sleep. I found some of the sounds are better for sleeping than for waking, for instance, I find that it is better for me to sleep to the sounds of the Rain or Forrest and to wake up to the sounds of the Birds or Town (more of an old fashion town with the distance chiming of the town clock and horse-drawn carriages going by).

The NEXT step for this lamp is aromatherapy. Wouldn't it be nice to fall asleep with a lovely scent of lavender and then wake up with the scent of spiced orange blossoms - or fresh brewed coffee???

There is one important bit of information that I want to point out from the instructions:

***This product is SENSITIVE to power surges. USE a surge protector to plug this lamp through.***

I would not be surprised if users with negative experiences had a surge problem that they were unaware of occurring. Also make sure to install the back-up batteries so that your alarm will go off in the event of a surge or loss of power. The batteries are 4 AAs and are NOT included. I was particularly happy to see that it did not require one of those silly 9V batteries that most alarm clocks require.

The only down side to this product is that the replacement bulbs range from $10 to $20 - a bit on the costly side. The materials say the bulbs are good for 2000 hours. That is still to be seen. I will try to remember to revisit this review if I experience early burn-out.

If you make the decision to purchase this product, I hope that you have the same positive experience that I had.

Good luck!

Overall, I am finding this a helpful product, with a few glitches.

The good:

- the Sleep function is very helpful - you can set the light to dim over several time periods.

- the alarm has worked great - I've had no problems setting it or resetting it.

- the multi-color time display is a bit much for me, but setting it to one color was easy.

Less good:

- the bulbs are expensive to replace.

- the light makes a loud humming sound at lower light levels. Usually, this wakes me up, and it can be distracting during the 'sleep' function. It's still better than my old alarm clock though.

- they've done their best, but the design just doesn't do anything for me. I think it's kind of ugly.

- when you hit 'snooze', the light flips off, which startled me awake. This might be a good thing.

I haven't tried:

- any of the sounds

- the radio

I use this clock daily to get up, and I'm finding I get up easier and in a better mood than when I used a CD player alarm clock. If it weren't right next to my bed, I might not notice the humming sound so much.

I love this lamp! So far it has helped make me less groggy in the morning and I enjoy waking up to the simulated dawn as well as the sound (I like the chirping birds as do my cats). The light comes on gradually and brightens to a wonderful daylight. I highly recommend this light! The radio has the stations printed on the top of the dial which was a little weird but once I figured it out it was easy to tune and the reception is quite good. I also like how the clock part changes color and brightness. Very cool.

Although I'm an early riser by nature, I was tired of being blasted awake by the loud, disruptive "BEEP-BEEP-BEEP" of my old alarm clock, and then feeling blinded when I turned on my old light. This lamp is the solution! At first, I'll admit, I did wake up as soon as the light clicked on (I'm a very light sleeper) but after a week I got used to it, and now it's ideal. I like to get up at 5 a.m., 5:15 at the latest. So I have the alarm set for 5:15 and have the light and sound (birds) set to start at 4:45. I find that the light/sounds have been going on for about 10-15 minutes before they rouse me out of my sleep, which means I wind up waking up seemingly "on my own" at 4:55 or 5:00--PERFECT!!!

Also: I like to read before going to sleep, but don't want to stay up more than a half-hour or so. So I set the light & sound (crickets) for 30 minutes, and they both gradually fade, lulling me to sleep.

Again, although I'm an "early bird" anyway, it still makes a WORLD of difference to be awakened GENTLY in the morning. No more harsh sounds and no more having to have my eyes adjust to glaring light!

I HIGHLY recommend this lamp!!!!

My husband and I have a horrible time getting up when it is still dark outside so we decided to try the Verilux Rise and Shine. He did the homework on it and I ordered it. After setting it up, all it would do was make this horrible screaming sound...one of our boys asked if we had a portal to hell in our bedroom, it was that bad. However, I called the company and they immediately knew what the problem was and sent a new one to us. I love waking up to a lighted room and like the sounds. I do think that the LED is too bright if you like to sleep in a dark room, as I do...even when you put it on dim and switch it to the red setting. Also a bit hard to read...I would suggest that Verilux include a cd player at the price that you pay so you could personalize it a bit because the radio is not really playable. Love the light and the rain sound though. The company is great to work with and is very receptive to any comments and suggestions. If you have to get up early in the winter, this is an excellent investment.